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Research article2010Peer reviewed

Corn stalk ash composition and its melting (slagging) behaviour during combustion

Xiong Shaojun, Öhman Marcus, Zhang Yufen, Lestander Torbjörn

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the fuel ash composition of corn stalk samples from 23 locations in Jilin Province, China and to estimate, via laboratory and theoretical methods, their ash melting (slagging) behaviour during combustion. The ash forming matter is in general dominated by Si, K, Ca and Mg, although there is large variation between the samples in fuel characteristics and contents of ash forming main elements. The results from the alkali index, the ash fusion test and the thermochemical model calculations all indicated that the corn stalk fuel showed moderate to high slagging tendencies during combustion. However, there are large differences in predicted slagging behaviour for the different samples. Samples with low K/(Ca+Mg) ratio showed moderate ash melting temperatures in the ASTM test and a moderate amount of melts in the temperature ranges 1000-1200°C in the thermochemical model calculations. In the samples with high K/(Ca+Mg) ratio, however, low ash melting temperatures and a high amount of melts in the ranges 1000-1200°C was found in the ASTM test and in the thermochemical model calculations respectively

Published in

Energy and Fuels
2010, Volume: 24, number: 9, pages: 4866-4871